Dutch Baby Pancake with Lemon and Powdered Sugar
When my husband and I moved from the Upper Midwest to Texas, one of the things we missed the most was Dutch Baby Pancakes (also called German Pancakes). We set out on a culinary journey, testing many (MANY) different variations and recipes until we were finally able to create this, a Dutch Baby Pancake that tasted exactly like we remembered, and was also easy to make. It was also, incidentally, the very reason that we first bought a cast-iron skillet, and set us off on our expeditions into cast-iron cooking.
Equipment I use:
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Dutch Baby Pancake with Lemon and Powdered Sugar
Equipment
- 10" Cast-iron skillet (see note for larger pans)
Ingredients
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup milk
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp granulated sugar
- ¼ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 pinch salt
- 2 Tbsp butter
- 1-2 Tbsp lemon juice
- powdered sugar to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F with the 10" Cast Iron Skillet inside.
- Beat the eggs and mix in the flour. Warm the milk separately (cold milk will affect the texture of the finished dutch baby) and mix with the egg and flour mixture. Add sugar, salt, and vanilla and mix well. Batter should be runny.
- Once the oven is fully preheated and the skillet is hot, add the butter to the pan. Allow it to melt and gently tilt the pan to coat it. (this will not take long, at this point you should move fairly quickly to avoid burning the butter)
- Add the batter to your pan and bake for ~13 minutes. The pancake should have ‘poofed’ up the sides, and appear fluffy, with browning around the edges.
- Remove from the oven and top with lemon juice and powdered sugar to taste.
Notes
- This could also be made with another oven-safe pot or pan, however I believe that the thick walls of the cast iron skillet give this the best quality even baking.
- The pancake will sometimes poof quite a lot while baking (almost like a souffle), it will flatten into a delicious pancake almost immediately upon removing it from the oven.
- If you are making a slightly large pancake in a 12″ cast-iron skillet, I recommend increasing this recipe by 50% (multiply all ingredients by 1.5) and using the same baking time/temperature.
- [EDIT] We found that the high temperatures of the original recipe were stressing out the seasoning on our cast iron, so we tweaked the cooking time and temperatures above. The original is: 475°F for ~12 minutes
Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 Comments
B
My sons and I used to go to a nearby diner to celebrate little accomplishments (new Tae kwondo belts, post-performances, etc.) and have German pancakes with lemon and powdered sugar. Recently we went and they were closed, my 7 yr old started bawling and saying, “I worked so hard and I just wanted a lemon pancake”. We came home and I found this recipe and made it immediately – thank goodness the ingredients are simple and the process is super easy. I was shocked, they came out just like the restaurant, were faster (the restaurant required about an hour) and were every bit as good if not better, not to mention way cheaper. Thanks! We have made this now several times and each time I’m just amazed at how beautiful the pancake comes out of the oven and how easy it is!
Angela
I’m so happy to hear that! We had a similar experience (still don’t know why the restaurant always takes an hour) and that was why I worked to make this recipe. Your comment really made my day!